The B2B Buyer's Journey: Are You on the Right Path? [Infographic]

The customer journey has been well documented for those us who market directly to the consumer. But what about those who market and sell to other businesses? The customer journey for B2B looks a little bit different.

Directions Needed: The B2B Buyers Journey

Madison Logic, a provider of data-powered lead solutions for advertisers, released an infographic that demonstrates the B2B buyer’s journey through the sale cycle. Thanks to predictive analytics and real-time identification, it’s easier to understand who’s visiting your website and the context of the visit. Yet, according to the infographic, only 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy and only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. All of this servers to complicate an already hard to maneuver buyer’s journey.

Marketing Automation Can Help

If 70% of marketing leads never convert into sales, is there anything B2B marketers can do?

It’s essential for companies to incorporate marketing automation processes, which can help to capture valuable buyer behavior. By learning which specific content buyers are consuming, where customers are finding content and what they do next, marketers can provide targeted content and offers that can serve to improve buyer engagement, as well as increase conversion rates.

Much the same way B2C companies think about the customer experience, B2B marketers need to stop thinking about the destination and focus on the journey. By optimizing engagement with prospective buyers before the sale, companies can build trust, loyalty and confidence so that when they commit to a purchase, that information can be used to retain customers and steer the journey after purchase.

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